Kik Forms Independent Safety Advisory Board

December 06, 2017News

WATERLOO, Ontario – Dec. 6, 2017- Kik Interactive, creator of the popular chat platform Kik, today announced the formation of a Safety Advisory Board. Kik will leverage the board’s individual and collective expertise to help shape its safety strategy both for Kik and for Kin. In addition, Kik recently launched a new safety initiative, which is supported by a $10 million budget over the next 18 months. The increased investment will go towards building expanded user controls, improved user safety education, and outreach, as well as a more comprehensive content moderation program.

“Kik stands by our $10M commitment to trust and safety,” said Ted Livingston, CEO and Founder, Kik. “Due to the infancy of the industry, most cryptocurrency companies are not ready or able to tackle safety issues. However Kik finds itself in the position to be able to build safety into Kin from the beginning and create the most trustworthy cryptocurrency as part of increasing mainstream consumer adoption and success.”

Kik’s Safety Advisory Board is currently made up of four experts, spanning expertise in the fields of child development, child exploitation and trafficking, criminology, cyberbullying, and privacy and security. The members include:

Anne Collier, a youth and digital media expert, executive director of The Net Safety Collaborative and founder of iCanHelpline.org. Collier serves on similar boards for Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter.

Brooke Istook, director of strategy and operations at Thorn, an organization committed to leveraging technology in order to combat online child exploitation, accelerate victim identification and protect vulnerable children.

Hemu Nigam, CEO and founder of SSP Blue, a leading advisory firm for online safety, security and privacy challenges facing governments and corporations. Nigam is a former federal prosecutor against child and computer crimes for the U.S. Department of Justice and headed up safety organizations at Microsoft and News Corp.

Justin Patchin, a criminal justice professor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire with a Ph.D in the field. Justin co-founded the Cyberbullying Research Center and has written numerous books on the topic of cyberbullying to help teens navigate challenging online problems with his partner, Sameer Hinduja.

“Bringing the digital safety discussion to cryptocurrency and baking safety into its new currency, Kin, is groundbreaking work on Kik’s part," said Anne Collier, executive director of The Net Safety Collaborative. "Arguably, there is no more important contribution to the global digital currency marketplace than to create industry best practices around consumer safety, especially as mainstream uptake grows. I'm excited to be part of this work as a member of Kik's new Safety Advisory Board."

Kik Interactive, Inc., connects the world through chat. The company is the maker of Kik, a chat platform popular with U.S. teens where people can chat with friends and connect with chat-based services. Founded in 2009, Kik Interactive, Inc. is headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, and has offices in New York, Tel Aviv, and Toronto. For more information, please visit kik.com.